Sports

BMW Championship 2018: Tiger Woods roars out of gate in rain-delayed final round

Tiger Woods was 4-under in the final round and 16-under for the rain-delayed BMW Championship.

Written ByBob Hille

Tiger Woods shrugged off the persistent showers that left Aronimink Golf Club extremely soft Monday to make the turn at 4-under for the day and 16-under for the BMW Championship, just a shot off the lead.

The tournament's rain-delayed final round got started shortly before 8 a.m. ET Monday in suburban Philadelphia with an eye on the sky, based on the forecast, and completing the FedEx Cup Playoffs event with 54-hole leader Justin Rose on the brink of victory.

After rain wiped out Sunday's play in suburban Philadelphia, the final round was pushed back to Monday. The forecast called for a 50 to 60 percent chance of rain throughout the day but radar showed that remnants of tropical storm Gordon finally were moving north out of the area.

Woods, teeing off at 8:40 a.m. ET, opened with a birdie at No. 1, kept his card blemish-free over the next three holes and then surged up the leaderboard with three birdies in his last five holes for a 31 on his opening nine.

While Rose was even through the early part of his Round 4, Billy Horschel (3-under through eight) and Keegan Bradley (4-under through eight) joined him atop the leaderboard at minus-17.

Half the field needs to finish its Monday rounds in order to take the rain-delayed tournament into a sixth day on Tuesday if necessary. If half the field doesn't finish on Monday, then the event would revert to the 54-hole scores, giving Rose the victory and seeing the projected top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings progress to the Tour Championship Sept. 20-23 in Atlanta.

That's crucial for at least one high-profile player. Three-time major champion Jordan Spieth was 2-over for Monday's final round through 13 holes. He had briefly broken into the projected top 20 but was projected 31st at that point and was among those who would miss that cut.